Shower Installation Wellington

Installing a shower is mostly about managing water. Whether the floor underneath stays dry for the next twenty years comes down to the fall, the waste, the membrane and how the mixer is set into the wall. All of that is decided before a single tile goes down, and none of it is easy to fix afterwards.

Cheeky's Plumbers installs showers across the region, from a straight swap of a tired acrylic unit to a new tiled wet floor shower in a bathroom that never had one, anywhere from Kilbirnie and Karori to the Hutt and Kāpiti. We plan the waste position, supply pipes and mixer with you, work alongside your waterproofer, tiler or builder, and tell you early whether the job needs building consent.

Pricing: quotes are free, and every job gets a fixed price before we start, so there are no surprises on the invoice.

Shower Installation Jobs We Handle Across Wellington

• Shower installation
• New shower install
• Shower waterproofing
• Wet floor shower
• Level entry shower installation
• Replace shower with new unit

Tiled level-entry or a moulded unit?

Most new showers fall into one of two camps, and the choice changes the cost, timeline and paperwork. A moulded acrylic or fibreglass unit comes with its own tray and walls, the fall is built into the tray, and it suits rentals and second bathrooms. A tiled shower, especially a level-entry or wet floor design with no step, looks better and suits anyone with limited mobility, but it relies on a site-applied membrane and a floor formed to fall to the waste. If your current shower only drips, leaks or runs cold, shower repairs may solve it without a new install.

• Acrylic or moulded unit: faster install, fewer trades, usually a like-for-like swap
• Tiled shower on a tray or with a hob: a moderate build with a membrane under the tiles
• Level-entry or wet floor shower: no step, with the floor graded to a floor waste or linear drain

Falls, membranes and the floor waste

For a level-access shower, BRANZ explains that E3/AS1 asks for a fall of at least 1:50 towards the floor waste, extending 1,500 mm from below the shower rose. An enclosed shower with upstands needs at least 1:60. Getting this wrong is the most common reason water ends up across the bathroom floor instead of down the drain.

Under the tiles, the waterproof membrane is what keeps water out of the framing. Acceptable Solution E3/AS2 cites the industry code of practice for internal wet area membranes, and Level recommends flood testing the waterproofed floor before tiling. On timber or plywood floors, which are common in Wellington's older piled houses, the whole floor should be waterproofed, not just the shower zone. Membrane work is a specialist trade, so we coordinate with qualified waterproofers and seal waste and mixer penetrations the way the membrane system requires.

How It Works

Does a new shower need building consent?

It depends what is changing. MBIE guidance treats replacing or repositioning a shower within an existing bathroom in a house as exempt building work. Adding a shower where there was none increases the number of sanitary fixtures, and councils treat that as needing consent. Lowering floor framing or cutting a slab for a level-entry shower also moves you into consent territory.

Tiled showers are a grey area. A 2024 MBIE determination found that installing a wet area membrane while replacing linings in an existing house can fall within the Schedule 1 exemption, but councils have taken different views over the years. Ask Wellington City, Hutt City, Upper Hutt, Porirua or Kāpiti Coast District Council for their current position on your job. The building owner is responsible for deciding whether work is exempt, so we talk it through before you commit. If consent is needed, we supply the plumbing details, and it often makes sense to treat the job as part of wider bathroom renovation plumbing.

Choosing a mixer that suits your hot water

The mixer goes into the wall before tiling, so it has to be right first time. A mixer designed for mains pressure can perform badly on a low pressure system, and some rain heads need more flow than an older cylinder can give. We check your hot and cold supply before recommending a valve.

Thermostatic mixers hold a set temperature when someone else turns on a tap, which is worth considering for children and older users. Hot water to a new shower must be temperature limited, usually through tempering valves at the cylinder, and we check yours while we are there. If weak flow is the real complaint, we look at low water pressure across the whole house rather than just the shower.

Showers in Wellington homes

Wellington's older housing often makes waste changes easier than people expect. Many villas, cottages and bungalows sit on timber piles with a subfloor you can get under, which gives good access to the waste. Old timber floors may still need new substrate before a membrane goes down.

Slab homes and newer townhouses make it harder, because the concrete may need cutting. Upstairs bathrooms on hillside houses, and apartments in Te Aro, often have little room below for a waste to fall, so the route needs planning early. If an old shower has been leaking, we can arrange leak detection first so nobody tiles over damp framing.

What affects the cost of a new shower

Every shower installation gets a free quote once we have seen the space, and the price is fixed before work starts. The main things that move it are:

• A moulded unit swap versus a tiled or wet floor build
• Moving the waste, especially through a concrete slab
• Framing changes to create a level-entry fall
• Linear drains and concealed or thermostatic mixers
• Whether building consent and inspections are involved

Why Choose Cheeky's Plumbers for Shower Installation

Shower Installation FAQs

Shower Installation Across Wellington

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